New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest Podcast

Larry Wood joins us this week to talk about the contests and cartoons from the current issue of the New Yorker.
Some great discussions with Larry as always! We all agreed on many of the caption picks, but there were also some disagreements as well. Larry mentions a story about hitchhiking from the radio show/podcast, The Moth. You can find it here:
https://www.themoth.org/stories/a-very-dangerous-person

We discuss the winning entry for Contest #1007 (Wolfgang Pork.)

Finalists for Contest #1009 (SkyMaul: Panda Edition.)

Current Contest #1011 (Serving Pumpkin guy.)

...

Riley Fanning joins us on the podcast this week.
Riley is a fairly recent contributor to the New Yorker. She had her first cartoon in the Daily last year and her first one published in the magazine a month ago.
We talk with her about her background and how she got into the New Yorker. She is also a musician and is in the band, Glosser. 

You can find her music here:
https://www.youtube.com/@glosserband

And her cartoons and doodles here:
https://www.instagram.com/rileydoodlessometimes/

On P...

This week's podcast is a special tribute to New Yorker Cartoonist, P.C. Vey.
Peter passed away on September 17th. He was a terrific cartoonist with a wonderfully bent sense of humor. We invited cartoonists Michael Maslin, Drew Dernavich and Shannon Wheeler to talk about Peter and his cartoons. We have some insightful discussions about his work and we couldn't help laughing as we talked about his cartoons. It wouldn't be a tribute to someone who created so many funny cartoons if there wasn't a lot of laughter. 

You can find P.C. Vey's cartoons here:

Olivia Pecini joins us on the podcast this week.
Olivia had her first cartoon appear in the print issue of the New Yorker a few weeks ago (she's also had a Daily cartoon and illustrated a couple of Shouts & Murmurs). She is also a talented illustrator and works in animation. 
We talk with her about her creative career and how she got onto the New Yorker. We also get sidetracked by the Major League Baseball playoffs. 

On Part 1 of the episode, we discuss the current contests:

Winning captions for New Yorker contest #1004 (Chess Bo...

Frequent Caption Contest finalist, John Konno joins us on the podcast this week.
John (or a member of his family) has been a finalist in the New Yorker contest five times and more times than we can count in the CartoonStock contest (he's been the top winner in the last two contests). We talk with him about the how he got into entering the contests and he joins us in the contest discussions and our favorite cartoons from the current issue of the New Yorker. 

The podcast was much saddened to learn of the passing of P...

Michael Maslin returns to the podcast to talk some more about cartoons, process, motivation and the contests. We get into a great discussion on a new trend in humor that we're calling "shared experience". 

You can find Michael's Ink Spill Substack here:
https://michaelmaslinsinkspill.substack.com

Liza Donnelly's documentary , "Women Laughing", is starting to be shown in theaters. You can find where it's playing and learn more about it here:
https://www.womenlaughingfilm.com

Rusty Epstein's Reverse Caption Contest can be found here:
https://www.reversecaptioncontest.com

We a...

Bob Mankoff returns to the podcast for a fifth time. We talk with him about the changes to the CartoonStock contest, The recent decision by Air Mail to no longer publish cartoons in its weekly digital magazine and the current state of AI and it's ability to be funny. 
The co-hosts have a lively discussion on the current New Yorker contests and Paul, once again, digs in the gutter for another caption idea.

Here's the link to the games page at CartoonStock:
https://www.cartoonstock.com/games/

On Part 1 of the episode, we d...

Larry Wood joins us this week to talk about the contests and cartoons from the current issue of the New Yorker.
We have some great discussions and disagreements on the finalists for the New Yorker and CartoonStock contests. Humor is very subjective!

We discuss the winning entry for Contest #1000 (Rocky Swords Picture Show.)

Finalists for Contest #1002 (Singin' in the Rain Barrel of Monkeys.)

Current Contest #1004 (Hello Doggy, Checkmate!)

Be sure to enter the latest CartoonStock Caption Contest with the new rules! The more people who enter, the bigger the cash...

Guy Richards Smit joins us on the podcast this week. 
Guy has followed his muse down many paths: art, music, video production and most recently, gag cartooning. His art has been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, The Hirshhorn Museum and The Pompidou Center among many other museums and galleries. 
His first cartoon was published in the New Yorker in 2022 and he has had many published since then in the magazine and the Daily cartoons.
We talk with him about his career, cartoons and recent projects.

You can find his cartoons on his in...

John Klossner returns to the podcast to talk some more about cartoons, Children's book illustrations, his stint doing the Caption Contest Commentary for Beth's facebook group and puns. We really dig into puns on this one (fair warning).

Here are the links to the books John worked on:
Smalltown City
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZQM2ZBM?lv
Everyone's Trash
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1942155778?lv

And some links to other Caption contests that John contributes cartoons to:
https://moderncat.com/cartooncaption/
https://moderndogmagazine.com/cartooncaption/

...

Olivia Noble joins us on the podcast this week. Olivia Started submitting her cartoons to the New Yorker through Submittable in 2024 and had her first Cartoon published in the magazine in September, 2025. She has had a second cartoon published since than and has had a cartoon appear in a recent caption contest.
We talk with Olivia about her journey to becoming a New Yorker cartoonist, her process, cartoons and the never ending thrills of copy editing.
She hopes to have a webpage or at least an instagram presence very soon so that people can find her cartoons!<...

Larry Wood joins us this week to talk about the contests and cartoons from the current issue of the New Yorker.
We were all pretty much in agreement with the New Yorker contests, but the podcast gang did take Larry to task for some of the Cartoon Stock picks. Larry was able to defend his personal picks, but could offer no defense for the other judge's picks (he actually agreed with us for a change). 
Larry also states that he thinks his caption for New Yorker Contest #1000 is one of the best he's come up with. We'll s...

Rusty Epstein joins us on the podcast this week. Rusty's cartoons have appeared in The Weekly Humorist, The Times and other magazines and will soon be published in the Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker (he recently received an "O.K.", but it has not been published yet). We talk with Rusty abbot his journey to becoming a cartoonist, his process and the challenge of tracking where you've submitted your cartoons.
He has also created and runs the Reverse Caption Contest, a contest where he supplies the caption and you supply the cartoon image. 
You can f...

Avi Steinberg returns to the podcast to talk some more about cartoons, the rewards of being a kindergarten teacher and his soon to be published book, "The Jumble". We also talk about aour love of cartoon tropes (more desert island cartoons? Yes, please!)
At the end of the podcast, Avi asks the hosts about their recent attempts at drawing their own cartoons. Those cartoons can be found in the comments at the podcast facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0wyEZdfNbg4CUK9TfvfYSyEXevKH7zjmcijodvpijXR5R6AHPjFkLx8jMxoop4XNl&id=100075679507023

You...

Larry Wood joins us this week to talk about the contests and cartoons from the current issue of the New Yorker.
We go over the New Yorker contests with some disagreement, but the podcast gang mostly agrees with the judges picks for the CartoonStock contest (except for Paul, who did not like one of the finalist picks). 
The contest did generate over $1000 for the cash pot, so we were all happy to see that the changes to the contest were generating more entries.

We discuss the winning entry for Contest #993 (Hog heavin'.)

Finalists f...

A short podcast this week with just the podcast co-hosts Vin, Beth, Nicole and Paul talking about the contests and their favorite cartoons from the current week's issue of the New Yorker (we'll get back into regular guests again next week).
A straight forward podcast with only a short digression into Lonnie Millsap's world of sentient ground meat products (are the buns clothing or more like hair?)

We discuss the winning entry for Contest #992 (Rats, my research proposal lost funding.)

Finalists for Contest #994 (Grocery California, you can check out, but you can never leave.)<...

Cartoonist, Peter Kuper joins us on the podcast this week.
Peter is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker, is the current cartoonist for Spy Vs Spy in MAD magazine and was nominated for a Pulitzer prize this last year. We talk with him about his career, his recent books, "Insectopolis" and "Wish We Weren't Here". We also talk about "World War 3", an ongoing collection of graphic stories created by a wide range of artists.

You can find more about Peter at his website. You can also purchase his books and original art there as well:<...

Keith Knight joins us on the podcast this week.
Keith is a syndicated cartoonist and has been published in MAD, the New Yorker and many other magazines. He was also a co-creator of the Hulu series, "Woke", which was partially based on his life. His cartoons have won many awards, including a Comic- Con Inkpot Award for Career Achievement in Comics and a Harvey Award for Best Comic Strip.
He is currently working on developing one of his cartoons, "One Black Kid" as an animated short. He has a Kickstarter to help fund this creation and has...

Larry Wood joins us this week to talk about the contests and cartoons from the current issue of the New Yorker.
We go over the New Yorker contests without much disagreement, but the podcast gang does have some issues with how the CartoonStock caption judging went. We were all quite happy though to see that the prize pot came close to the previous set amount of $1,000. Keep playing and ask your friends and relatives to play as well. 

We discuss the winning entry for Contest #989 (You do have a Lego to stand on.)

Finalists f...

Jim Benton joins us on the podcast this week.
Jim is a renown illustrator and children's book writer. He created "IT'S HAPPY BUNNY" which has generated three-quarters of a billion dollars in product sales. He has written over 40 books including these series: "DEAR DUMB DiARY,", "Franny K. Stein" and "CATWAD".
Jim is also an accomplished cartoonist and has several cartoon compilations. The New Yorker has published one of his cartoons, so on top of everything else, he's also a New Yorker cartoonist!
You can learn more about Jim at his website (and also order his books...

Ellie Black joins us on the podcast this week.
Ellie started submitting to the New Yorker in 2017 and had their first cartoon published in 2019. Their latest cartoon was published in this week's issue!
We talk with Ellie about being creative and funny, their cartoons and submitting to the New Yorker (the thrill of having a cartoon accepted and the agony of rejection!)

Besides cartoons, Ellie publishes comics and has created a popular card game. Their comic, "Vampire Tears", can be found here:
https://nif-shop.cartoonist.coop/products/vampire-tears

And their card game, "...

Larry Wood joins us to help celebrate our 250th podcast!
Nicole was not able to make it to the main podcast, so we recorded an additional one that we added to the beginning. The four co-hosts reminisce about some of their favorite podcasts and talk about how doing the podcast for the last five has affected them. Vin, Beth and Paul then join with Larry to talk about the contests and their favorite cartoons from the issue.

We discuss the winning entry for Contest #986 (The only thing you need to sphere, is sphere itself)

...

Polly Lou Adams joins us on the podcast this week.
Polly is a fairly new cartoonist and has had a number of cartoons printed in the New Yorker and many more featured as the Daily cartoon. We talk with Polly about being creative, her journey to becoming a New Yorker cartoonist, her cartoons and we touch on the subject of A.I. and the current market for cartoons.

You can learn more about Polly at her Webpage:
https://pollylouadams.com
Subscribe to her SubStack:
https://poopscoop.substack.com
And check out her...

Frank Cotham returns to the podcast this week after a nearly five year absence. We catch up with Frank on what he's been up to (mostly cartooning and yard work) and have a nice leisurely chat with him about cartoons.
Frank doesn't have a social media presence, but you can find his cartoons (over 1,000 of them!) at the Condé Nast Store. Be sure to buy a mug or print while you're looking! 
https://condenaststore.com/art/frank+cotham

We also talk about the new Yorker caption contests:
Winning captions for contest #984 ("I'm making bunny te...

Tom Chitty returns to the podcast to talk about his upcoming book, "Nooks & Crannies of New York—from the Chronicles of Baron von Schoogenheimer". 
Tom's tome is a wonderfully whimsical compilation taken from the copious notes of Baron von Schoogenheimer during his stay in New York City. We learn about Cheese Pirates, Ghost League Baseball, Les Taxis du Savoir-Faire, Schneek's Hot Dogs and many more mysterious attractions from a bygone era (maybe they're still around and we're just not seeing them with our eyes glued to our phones).

You can pre-order the book through Tom's KickStarter pag...

Joel Mishon, cartoonist and Co-founder of CartoonStock, joins us on the podcast this week. We had a great time talking with Joel about his career as a cartoonist and administrator of cartoons at CartoonStock. We discuss the attributes a good caption should have and why some captions get picked over other captions. Some great insights into the world of Cartoon Caption Contest captioning!
You can license cartoons at CartoonStock here (and enter the contest!):
https://www.cartoonstock.com

On Part 1 of the episode, we discuss the current contests:

Winning captions for New Yorker...

Comedy writer and captioneer extraordinaire, Wayne Kline, joins us on the podcast this week to talk about his career as a TV comedy writer ("Good Times", "Married With Children", Jay Leno, David Letterman and many others) and his captioneering. 

A shoutout to Tom Chitty on his Kickstarter for his new book, "Nooks and Crannies of New York: From the Chronicles of Baron von Shoogenheimer"!
You can find more information on the book and contribute to the Kickstarter here:
https://www.baronsguide.com

We discuss the winning entry for Contest #981 (Cat with a hot w...

Jake Goldwasser joins us on the podcast this week.
Jake is a cartoonist, poet, translator and high school English teacher.
He's had a number of cartoons (and Shouts & Murmurs) published in the New Yorker and other publications. We talk with him about his career, cartoon process, poetry and why we had to read The Great Gatsby in high school.

You can find more about Jake at his website:
https://jake-goldwasser.com
And his cartoons on his instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/jakegoldwasser/

On Part 1 of the episode, we discuss...

A short podcast this week with just the original podcast recipe of Vin, Beth and Paul talking about the contests and their favorite cartoons from the current week's issue of the New Yorker (we'll get back into regular guests again next week).
Vin lets the cat out of the bag with the podcast doing a roadtrip to Toronto. We'll be meeting up in Nicole's hometown at the end of May to celebrate doing the podcast for 5 years (yeah, I can't believe we've been doing this for five years). We're not sure if we'll get a podcast out of...

Larry Wood joins us for our monthly discussion about the CartoonStock contest. He hints at some changes to the contest that will be announced in the next month. We have our usual discussion about the New Yorker contest (Paul admits he was wrong about there being Position Bias!) and we talk about our favorite cartoons from the current issue of the New Yorker.

We discuss the winning entry for Contest #978 (There's a buoy here to see you.)

Finalists for Contest #980 (Majesty Carpet Ride.)

Current Contest #982 (Welcome to New Awk City.)

You...

We start the podcast talking with our own Nicole Chrolavicius about her ventures into writing humorous articles this last year. She's had seven pieces published with an eighth one coming out soon. We then go into our usual discussion about the contests and our favorite cartoons from the current week's issue of the New Yorker.

You can find Nicole's humor writings here:
https://weeklyhumorist.com/other-gifts-that-only-stupid-people-would-turn-down-besides-a-jet-from-qatar/

https://thebelladonnacomedy.com/bow-to-your-overlord-the-fitness-center-receptionist-and-keeper-of-the-gym-towels-b9b4c1077c91

https://weeklyhumorist.com/bloodletting-leeches-and-carbolic-smoke-balls-who-says-the-cure-is-worse-than-the-disease/

https://medium.com/frazzled/im-nine-years-old-and-i-like-my-video-games-violent-97ede7bba92f

https://medium.com...

A fun podcast this week with cartoonist, Lynn Hsu and frequent contest finalist, Carol Lasky.
Lynn and carol have been collaborating on cartoons since Carol won a CartoonStock contest that used one of Lynn's cartoons. Their collaborations have appeared in the New Yorker and other respected publications.
We talk with them about their process and the cartoons they've created together.

You can find Lynn's cartoons on instagram here:
https://www.instagram.com/loopyline/

And her website here:
https://lynnihsu.com

We discuss the winning entry for Contest #976 (Wait, what?)<...

This is an off week for the New Yorker (double issue last week), but we do have Larry Wood joining us for our monthly discussion about the CartoonStock contest. We dive into our likes and dislikes about the captions selected as winners for that contest and talk about captions we liked that didn't make it into the finalists.
In the first half of the podcast, we talk about the New Yorker contest in general and discuss the pros and cons of entering an obvious caption.

You can order Larry's book, "Your Caption Has Been Selected: More...

Rich North joins us on the podcast this week.
Rich is a fairly new cartoonist with his  cartoons first appearing in the New Yorker just over a year ago. 
We talk with Rich about how he got into cartooning, his process, how bowling changed his life and, as always, we get distracted by shiny objects along the way.
You can check out Rich's cartoons at his website:
https://www.rich-north.com
And on his Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/richnooorth/

On Part 1 of the episode, we discuss the current contests:

We're happy to have cartoonist, Dan Misdea return to the podcast this week! 
We talk with Dan about the children's book he had published after the last time he was on the podcast and his more recent collaboration with Rob Meyerson, "AB@C And Other Gramograms", an homage to the great William Steig's classic book "CDB!" (See the Bee!). 
We also discuss the winning captions for his recent cartoon in the New Yorker contest and he joins us for the rest of the contest discussions and our favorite cartoons from the current issue of the New Yorker.

New Yorker cartoonist, Drew Dernavich, returns to the podcast for the ninth time (one more punch on his podcast ticket gets him a free pizza!) We talk about the book he's working on that he hopes to have out by this time next year, his Whisperbubble project  and his Great Holiday Hat Fail. 
You can find out more about Whisperbubble at his Substack:
https://whisperbubble.substack.com
You can find Drew's website here:
https://www.drewdernavich.com
And his collaborations with Nesja Press here:
https://www.nesjapress.com/drew-dernavich-collaboration

We discuss th...

Katherine Bettis Joins us on the podcast this week.Katherine is a fairly new cartoonist to the scene, but has already had her cartoons published in Airmail, Woman's World, The Weekly Humorist and a small publication called the New Yorker.We talk with her about how she got into cartooning, her process and her cartoons.
We also learn that she has a degree in architecture and is a musician. Once again, we try to figure out what the connection is between these vocations and cartooning. 

You can find Katherine's cartoons on her instagram page here:
h...

Larry Wood joins us for our monthly discussion about the CartoonStock contest. We have a good discussion about whether an obvious caption should be picked as a finalist (and congratulations to our own Beth for having her not obvious caption picked as a finalist in that contest!)

We discuss the winning entry for Contest #971 (I've been chipper.)

Finalists for Contest #973 (Long time listener, first time colder.)

Current Contest #975 (That's one small snap for man.)

As Paul mentions in the podcast, cartoonist Tommy Siegel has an excellent podcast, "Extremely Accurate Bird Songs"...

On this week's episode, Vin, Paul, Beth and Nicole review past and present contests from 2025 and choose our best and worst of the year.  We also talk a bit about the CartoonStock contest and our favorite regular cartoons from the issue for the year.
We talk a bit about Keith Huie's caption for the Finalists of contest #972. Keith is a terrific artist living in Wisconsin (just a couple of towns over from Paul) and you should check out his art here:
https://shopotlag.com/collections/all/artist_keith-huie?

And you can follow him on social m...

A short podcast this week with just the hosts talking about the contests and their favorite cartoons from the current week's issue of the New Yorker.

Our scheduled guest, Shannon Wheeler had something come up at the last minute and had to drop out. We hope to have him on again sometime early in 2026.

We discuss the winning entry for Contest #969 (Ever see a bun dance?")

Finalists for Contest #971 (Get to the chopper.)

Current Contest #973 (Snowman is an island.)

Original New Yorker cartoon artwork can be found at:
...